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Pensioners could still face huge bills for residential care despite the Government's plan to cap costs at £72,000, according to Labour calculations.

The Government's cap does not cover accommodation and living expenses, and care costs only count towards the limit at the rate the local council would pay for a place in a residential home.

Labour analysis showed that as a result it will take almost five years for elderly people to hit the cap - during which time they will have clocked up more than £150,000 for their actual residential care home bill.

In 2016/17 when the cap is due to come into effect the average council rate for residential care is estimated to be £522 a week, but the average price of a care home bed will be £610 a week.

The difference between the council rate and what pensioners actually pay will not count towards the cap

Pensioners in care homes will also have to pay £230 a week for their accommodation, which is counted separately from care costs and does not count towards the cap

"As we saw with Lewisham Hospital any attempt to use the failure of a hospital to force through change at neighbouring trusts can result in unnecessary strain on services, patient uncertainty and a huge cost to the taxpayer.

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Plans to extend charges on migrants and short term visitors using the NHS is "impractical, uneconomic and inefficient", according to the British Medical Association (BMA).

Chair of the trade union, Dr Mark Porter, warned the NHS did not have the infrastructure or resources to implement the policy.

The BMA believes that anyone accessing NHS services should be eligible to do so, but the Government's plans for extending charging to migrants and short term visitors are impractical, uneconomic and inefficient.

The NHS does not have the infrastructure or resources to administrate a charging system that is not likely to produce enough revenue to cover the cost of setting up its own bureaucracy.

The NHS does not need more administrators - it should be spending its money on caring for patients.

Government's proposals for an extended charging system for migrants and short-term visitors attempting to access healthcare in the UK could cause unintended damage to NHS services, the British Medical Association (BMA) has warned.

The group said there is no evidence that income from charging short-term visitors or migrants would be sufficient to cover the significant cost of the increased bureaucracy necessary to run the system.

The British Medical Association says extending the charging system for migrants could damage NHS services. Credit: PA Wire

The BMA has also warned that registering migrants at GP practices would increase the paperwork burden on already overstretched services.

Earlier this year, health officials revealed plans to charge foreigners who come to the UK hundreds of pounds a year to access NHS treatment.